August 01, 2006

"Will he sit and stare at the moon like I did when I was a boy?"

I'm a closet space junkie. I lived and breathed anything NASA when I was a kid and Armstrong and Aldrin were two of my biggest heroes growing up. I used to get annoyed when my grandparents wouldn't buy Tang. (Which led to my having a distinct lack of the little plastic moon buggies that everyone else had.) I had posters of all the phases of the moonshots and used to be able to name all of the astronauts from memory.

So last night a friend came over with a late birthday present for Jack. Something that left me speechless:

I'm going to find a frame for it as soon as possible. Aldrin has always been the more approachable of the first two men on the moon. (Armstrong's a bit reclusive.) Unfortunately it also means that Aldrin attracts his more than fair share of crackpots including the guy he finally slugged one day who had been stalking him. (Claiming the moon landings were fake, a theory I have no time for and lump into the same dustbin as "hollow earth" rubbish.)

Pete's cousin has a house on the same street as Aldrin. Pete asked his cousin for a favor and this was the result.

(My Uncle, Goolia's dad, is/was neighbors with the former 1st captain of the Nautilus.)

One thing we tend to lack these days are heroes with a background like the Apollo astronauts. Lance Armstrong, Steven Hawking, etc., are all fine and good but give me bootstrap flyboys and M.I.T. trained engineers any day of the week.

I often think about what it must have been like for Neil and Buzz, alone on the Sea of Tranquility. With no atmosphere the view was vast and empty.

Buzz Aldrin's autograph. How cool. Thanks Pete.

Posted by Jim at August 1, 2006 11:09 AM

Comments

I'm thinking Jack would rather have a picture of Buzz Lightyear than Buzz Aldrin.